


A River in You

by serenesavagery (windrunnerdreamer), windrunnerdreamer



Series: Path Down Memory Lane [2]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Angst, F/M, Female Sawada Tsunayoshi, Fluff, Mutual Pining, Romantic Fluff, Ten Year Bazooka (Katekyou Hitman Reborn!), Unresolved Romantic Tension, i really like fem!tsuna lol don't judge me, i'm assuming the future is the timeline continuing after tsuna's faked death, so yay for angst!!!, that thing is its own warning to be honest, they're in their last year of high school hehe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:41:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24402967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/windrunnerdreamer/pseuds/serenesavagery, https://archiveofourown.org/users/windrunnerdreamer/pseuds/windrunnerdreamer
Summary: So maybe Tsuna's had a crush on Gokudera. Maybe.She just didn't realize she never breached the topic even ten years later.
Relationships: Gokudera Hayato/Sawada Tsunayoshi
Series: Path Down Memory Lane [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1746643
Comments: 2
Kudos: 35





	A River in You

"Tenth, you're doing these questions rather well." Gokudera says, with a beatific smile as usual. Tsuna chuckles, steadfastly trying to ignore the blush on her face.

The reason she hadn't succeeded was because of her blasted hyper-intuition. 

She sighs imperceptibly and smiles up at him. "Thank you, Gokudera-kun. I honestly wouldn't have done this well if you hadn't explained it to me the way you had."

She's being sincere in this case, not that she wasn't before, but really, Gokudera has been a wonderful teacher, and the fact he is much calmer about praising her also helps. 

Gokudera's face also flushes with pleasure, but where he would have gone into bouts of exuberant and explosive praise three years ago, he only rubs the back of his neck with a pleased grin. "Thank you, Tenth. That means a lot. But I kind of had my work cut out for me, Tenth- you really did understand how to do them quickly." 

Tsuna also ignores Lambo's grumbles of _'get a room!'_ because this is _her_ room at any rate. While Gokudera's definitely changed for the better, considering how he just glares at the admittedly still cute kid instead of taking out his dynamites, Lambo still hasn't.

Some things never did change in the span of three years, Tsuna thinks, smiling to herself. And wasn't it so much more refreshing, she mused, than the sudden crush she grew?

If you told Tsuna she was gonna get a crush on Gokudera Hayato three years ago, she would have just stared at you like you were crazy because, really, _Gokudera-kun? The same Gokudera who was scarier and more violent than an actual terrorist? That Gokudera? Do I have no preservation for my life?_

But middle school kids didn't have much brains, and Tsuna hadn't had any so to speak of. Reborn would have argued that she didn't have any brains either way unless forced to possess some, in the heat of the situation. High school provided a new fresh perspective, new ideas, for both her and her friend, and while they were still the same idiots they had been in middle school, it was difficult not to notice some things in high school.

She liked Gokudera now- it was hard not to. After everything. After being looked at like she was the center of the universe. 

Tsuna just laughs and Gokudera leans back against his chair, the sunlight hitting against his glasses as he takes them off, wiping them with a slight smile on his face. 

Lambo however, is dissatisfied, and really, Tsuna should know by now that whenever _that_ happens- it means nothing good. 

"Ahodera! Ahoderaaaaa! Take me to the park!" Lambo whines, and Gokudera closes his eyes, gritting his jaw with a familiar intensity that used to make Tsuna's hair stand on end before but now she just feels resigned herself (considering it was hot) to the inevitable brawl that has occurred before, kept occurring and will keep occurring. 

"Gokudera-kun, ignore him." Tsuna says softly, and Gokudera exhales, trying his best to obey the request. 

Unfortunately, Lambo hits Gokudera on the head with a grenade and Gokudera only growls, instinct propelling him to take out a dynamite and throw it at the child who thankfully is running out the window with the most obnoxious cackle yet and Tsuna can only sigh in relief that at least, her bedroom is left out of the fight.

Gokudera then catches a hold of himself, eyes wide as he stares at the dynamite he was pulling out of his pocket before looking at Tsuna with a sheepish look on his face.

"Uh, sorry, Tenth?" Gokudera says, hurriedly stuffing the dynamite inside his pocket while Tsuna rubs her forehead.

"At least my bedroom didn't get disintegrated." Tsuna jokes and just as Gokudera opens his mouth to apologize, he then catches the glint of mischief in her eyes before exhaling with a smile. 

"Ahodera! Ahodera, take me to the park already!" Lambo shrieks, and Gokudera swallows, before taking two earbuds out of the pockets of his jeans, and then stuffing him into his ears.

"Let the stupid cow go there himself." Gokudera says, blandly and Tsuna giggles.

Lambo rushes back inside with alarming speed and the most petulant pout on his face. 

"Ahodera!" He whines once more, and Gokudera grabs another stick of dynamite, before catching Tsuna's stare (she's really proud of mastering that stare tactic. Get it? Stare tactic; okay, who is she kidding, she's not that funny) and then stuffing the stick of dynamite inside his pocket.

"M-must t-t-t-t-"

Tsuna gulps. "Oh no."

Gokudera widens his eyes and turns back to stare at Lambo. 

"You shitty cow- not the Tenth, you bumbling _moron_ -"

Tsuna can't help it- she screams _'Hiieeeeeeee!'_ and regretfully thinks that she has not stepped up from her position as a loser. 

* * *

She finds herself in a strangely dark....corridor?

Tsuna's landed in a standing position beside a door and grimaces in pain from the induced headache as she gets up from her awkward position, getting up with a grunt. "Huh?" She lets out blearily, looking around.

The corridor is futuristic, and well built, and she blinks at the slightly closed mahogany door right in front of her.

Behind the door, Tsuna realizes belatedly, there's the sound of a piano being played.

Tsuna blinked again. Didn't....

Didn't Gokudera play the piano? (She briefly remembers the notes of a haunting melody played lovingly, and the knowledge that Gokudera had been in that very room the last, and she blushes.)

_Now that's just wishful thinking. You're the head of the biggest Mafia familigia in this timeline, with more than what, ten thousand members? Somebody other than Gokudera has to be playing._

The piano stops playing and Tsuna freezes, wondering if she should make a run for it or just wait and be ambushed by the obviously confused piano player. 

She makes to turn away and walk, but then a familiar voice, older yes, but still familiar stops her.

"Tenth?" 

Tsuna freezes, and turns back to look at the man.

She smiles nervously. "Uh....hi?" She says, waving stupidly.

The man, Gokudera, from ten years later, just stares at her before shaking his head with a faint smile. "I see. Lambo, again."

Tsuna nods, hurriedly shuffling her hands into her pockets again. "Y-Yeah."

Gokudera looks from one end of the corridor to the other, before beckoning her inside the room.

Tsuna blinks, swallowing. "Really?"

Gokudera smiles. "Of course, Tenth. Besides, I don't think you can stay here without getting spotted by someone and getting asked questions. Even in the span of ten minutes, activity is intense in the Vongola. Just as you ensued," he added, eyes twinkling a little.

Tsuna blushes, not having remembered him as this amused with everything and subsequently shrinking into her hoodie while Gokudera just chuckles. 

"Yeah, you're right." Tsuna says sheepishly, walking inside as Gokudera follows her, inhaling a little at the cologne he's put on- it smells nice and it's mixed with the perpetual scent of smoke that surrounds him.

 _He's still smoking, huh._ Tsuna thinks, rather sadly to herself- because while it is convenient for him to smoke, considering his abilities, it still is a death sentence to do so anyway. 

She peeks inside, widening her eyes at the beautiful white piano in the center of the room and then before she can stop herself, looks questioningly at Gokudera.

Gokudera however understands her even more seamlessly than before and nods, his smile brightening his face. "I play the piano these days, Tenth." He says, in response to her unasked question and Tsuna blushes. The fact that he looks like a magazine model, is also not doing her brain any favors. 

"Ah. Um, you sounded really good." Tsuna says timidly, and Gokudera chuckles again, eyes crinkling.

"Thank you."

"Why didn't you...why didn't you play when you were younger?" Tsuna asks, her mouth apparently having wishes and desires different from hers. 

Gokudera looks surprised at the question, before shaking his head with a smile that's somehow a little more bitter than before. "I did, but not much. As to the reason, Tenth, I...I was a little stupid, back then. It wasn't until...four years ago, that somehow I got a piano addressed to me with a letter inside, requesting me to play it. Till date, I haven't found out who bought it." He said, smile again now more genuine at the end, much to Tsuna's relief. 

"Whoever they are, they must have been smart." Tsuna says, and Gokudera looks at her in surprise before laughing into his hand. 

Tsuna finally understands what is to be hated about Lambo (not really, he's still a child, but if there's anything Tsuna is a master of, it's hyperbole, considering everything) and she swears she's going to forbid him snacks when she gets back. No more snacks for that little brat. That was it. Absolutely it. 

Anything-anything would be better than being reduced to an incoherent mess at the sound of that absolutely delightful laughter, Tsuna thinks mournfully. 

"I can agree with that, Tenth." Gokudera says, smiling. 

Tsuna then brings her hands out of her pockets, biting her lip as she twiddles her thumbs together and she can almost hear Reborn chiding her by saying _'Still no good as ever, huh? Don't you know that a mafioso boss does not sound and behave like a verbally inept buffoon around their subordinates?'_

 _'Shut up, Reborn- you were never a teenage girl to begin with. Scratch that, you probably were never even a teenager!'_ Tsuna retaliates at Mind-Reborn, pouting. 

"We have seven minutes left." Tsuna quickly adjusts, looking at the watch that had been a gift from her father in her first year of high school.

The words escape from her mouth before she even thinks about it. She doesn't regret them however.

"Would you play for me?" 

Gokudera blinks, clearly startled as he looks down at her, and Tsuna just looks steadily at him.

This isn't something she'll regret. Asking Gokudera about himself was not something she had ever regretted. It was the fact she had never thought of asking him, the fact she never had asked him even after having possessed that thought with a secret guilt, and it was the fact that she had to watch with a bitter regret as he did everything in his power to make sure she was happy at the very least while she never could.

He was a true storm- because he never let her get to the eye of the storm. 

"Please." She says softly, and Gokudera blinks again, before sighing and running a ringed hand through his hair, smiling slightly.

Tsuna then suddenly wonders, how on earth did her future self think of betraying him and letting him wallow in anguish? _Gokudera_? How could she have been so cruel to Gokudera? If anything she had owed him the truth the most, didn't she?

She remembered haunted eyes, the color of ash, looking at her with desperation and guilt and Tsuna clenches her fist unconsciously, angry with herself.

How could she have done something so cruel? To all of them? Most importantly, to Gokudera?

She still didn't understand, even after several sleepless nights of doubt and mistrust. 

"I can't possibly refuse now, Tenth." He says, his soft voice, raspy with the ash he had swallowed, jolting her back to reality, as he sits down in front of the piano.

"I didn't want you to." Tsuna says, more honest with him than she had been since three years. Since she asked him to share laughter with the others, not to regret life, to watch the fireworks with her. 

Gokudera looks surprised before his smile turns a touch wry, and he then turns his eyes to his piano, inhaling before playing. 

Tsuna doesn't know much about music, about anything really, but she knows that the music he's playing right now, is nothing but pure _art_. His fingers are gentle on the piano, touching the keys with a quiet but stolid reverence, and there's nostalgia in his eyes, nostalgia she spots for just a second before he closes his eyes, lost in the melody he's playing. 

She listens rapt, coming closer, breathing a little stilted as she swallows and listens to the music, a soft melody but tinged with a touch of darkness, a little sadness there. Tsuna watches wide eyed as Gokudera keeps playing, as if he too is listening to what the music has to say.

This was art, because Tsuna finds her thoughts now nothing more than an awed mess- and she finds herself lost in the melody as well, and then regrettably, he stops.

One minute left, she checks, and she bites on her lips.

"That was beautiful." Tsuna says, and Gokudera looks at her, heart-achingly vulnerable despite ten or so years of being a hardened mafioso and his eyes shine, as he smiles gently.

"Thank you, Tenth."

"You should play more....I'd like it." Tsuna says, hoping the meaning of her words is not lost on Gokudera.

Gokudera widens his eyes, and then he's gone.

* * *

Tsuna finds herself landing on her bed, and she finds herself eye to eye with Gokudera, the one she knows too well, and he is also gaping at her, a very heavy blush on his face.

"Um. Tenth." Gokudera says intelligently.

"Gokudera-kun." Tsuna says, with the same amount of intelligence.

Lambo cackles obnoxiously from the bed and both turn to glare at him.

"Lambo-sama saw Gokudera being more of an idiot, hahaaaaa!" Lambo cackles, and Gokudera growls, throwing a pen at him.

Lambo then goes back to crying in a corner while Gokudera looks back at Tsuna, embarrassed.

 _What did my future self say?_ Tsuna wonders, blushing. 

"Um. Tenth...do you think I am not....honest with you?" Gokudera asks, swallowing.

Tsuna blinked. Wow.

So...her future self, ten years from now...

Was she feeling the same about Gokudera as she did now, Tsuna wondered, eyes wide.

"Well...I just think you could tell me a bit more about yourself? What you're feeling, really feeling...what you think....and about you, in general?" Tsuna asks, smiling nervously. 

Gokudera blinked before laughing a little too loud in embarrassment. "Really?" He then asks, looking like a kicked puppy.

Tsuna bites on her lip to stop herself from laughing before smiling at him. She half wonders if the blush on his face is from embarrassment or something else, and she desperately finds herself hoping for the latter.

"Yeah. I'd love to know more about you." She says gently, holding his hand.

Gokudera widens his eyes. "Tenth, I-"

"Please." Tsuna says, widening her eyes so that she gets to look like a kicked puppy too. 

Gokudera swallows, before then blushing furiously at their linked hands. "Uh....of course, Tenth...what is it you would like to know?" He asks, now smiling. 

The look in his eyes, that little glow that makes him as beautiful as he is, pulls her in to swear, to never let him go. Never let at least his friendship disappear. 

Tsuna smiles, not letting go of something, his hand, she likes, for the first time. "Well, for starters, why did you never tell me you played the piano?"

* * *

* * *

"Boss." Hayato says, swallowing as he finds himself face to face with her.

"Gokudera-kun," she says, smiling at him with something akin to regret and chagrin. 

Hayato just nods, not knowing what to say. 

Boss smiles at him, sad and regretful, and Hayato only looks away. 

"Forgive me, Boss but if you will excuse me. There are some deals with the Camorra Familigia that require dealing with." Hayato says stiffly, after an eternity of silence. 

She only sighs and nods, guilt bathing her eyes but Hayato feigns ignorance.

"You could relax, Gokudera-kun. The Vongola won't collapse if you do."

 _But I will and you let me collapse, once and yet I still love you after that and I don't know why,_ Hayato does not say even though the words have been on the tip of his tongue for three years. He only shakes his head. 

"They require immediate attention, Boss. Thank you for your concern." 

"Of course." She says, with a sigh softer than the breeze caused by a fluttering butterfly. 

He hopes in the future, that the younger self of him, will not have his love tainted and then smiles wistfully as he walks out, remembering the fire in her eyes.

* * *

Tsuna watches Gokudera walking away, before closing her eyes.

Her eyes have a dryness to them that they don't deserve and she knows. 

She knows that the love that she had lost was entirely her doing. 

**Author's Note:**

> hii! this series is actually me revisting old fandoms  
> i love khr, in fact, i'm rewatching it rn?? i remember yamamoto being my fave but suddenly i now leaned towards gokudera? god only knows lmao but my love for 2759 is forever constant  
> 


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